Materials

Anti-bacterial technical fabric – used at the top layer that contacts the body

Medium density foam

High density foam (The RACE bibshort) OR Ultra-high density foam (The BIB bibshort)

Backing foam – used at the base of the chamois

Super-elastic lycra – the final layer that comes in contact with the saddle

Elastic Mesh Cup foam – the black insert in men’s chamois for groin support. This feature is removed for the women’s bibshort.

Chamois Density

When you hold a RedWhite bibshort and give the chamois a squeeze, you’ll notice how resistant the material is. This differs from most other cycling bibs you own.

As your ride’s miles chalk up, you’ll notice that our chamois doesn’t progressively flatten out and continues to provide support. This is important because a material that maintains its shape provides a high degree of protection from road-buzz. This keeps your posterior fresh when out on a long day. Nothing is worse than getting back on the bike after a cafe stop, only to feel your sore sit-bones.

Both The BIB & The RACE utilise identical foam densities throughout except for the mid-layer of the chamois. For The RACE, this layer is 30% less, allowing the rider to roll forward into the drops more easily for hammer-time.

ForThe BIB (Women), we utilised the same foam densities and layup as The BIB, to give our female customers an indentical riding experience (as enjoyed by the men using The BIB). The women’s chamois does differ from the men’s version in The BIB in 3 ways :

No elastic mesh cup (required for cupping men’s genitalia only).

Minimal raised features on surface that contacts the rider (to reduce chafing).

Shorter and narrower perineum padding than men’s version (customised for female anatomy)

Chamois Thickness

A high density chamois is pretty uncomfortable without a degree of plushness to it.One of the biggest problems with high density chamois’ is that they can be too firm, causing any vibration (road-buzz) to be directly transmitted through them. We wanted to use a dense material for our chamois’ to prevent it from “flattening-out“, but at the same time, we didn’t want it to feel like a hard piece of thick fabric.

The answer was to achieve a delicate balance between density and thickness.

Its’ no secret that our chamois’ are thick. In fact, that’s the first thing all our customers notice. However, if you squeeze it, you’ll notice that the shaped padding on the sit-bone area is made up of 2 layers :

The Top-Layer comes into immediate contact with your sitbones is less dense than the Mid-Layer below. The foam here compresses slightly more to provide that “armchair” feel that we are well known for. The Mid-Layer on the other hand is 50% thinner and 200% more dense than the Top-Layer and acts as a primary support layer that prevents the chamois from compressing too much over the course of a long ride. It gives our chamois it’s meaty feel.

The combination of low thickness, high density and high-thickness, lower density creates a thick and comfortable chamois that is extremely plush, yet resilient enough to keep on supporting you throughout your long-ride without compressing.

ForThe BIB (Women), we retained the same architecture, foam densities and layup. However, we changed the order of the foam layers by placing the thinnest layer on top with the mid and top layers coming below that. This was done to reduce the raised features on the contact surface and keeping it as smooth as possible.

By doing this, we limit the possibility of chafing and “pinching”, common problems with raised features on many women’s chamois.

Construction

Traditionally, cycling chamois are made of layers of foam that are glued together which are prone to ungluing over time with use.

A RedWhite chamois is constructed differently to prevent this.

Our chamois are moulded into a 1 piece construction using a proprietary process called “Thermic Moulding”. In this process, the layers of foam are placed into a custom mould which compresses and heats the layers to 190 deg C gently. The compression and the heat causes the foams and fabric to fuse together into 1 layer. The chamois feels like a 1-piece construction rather than multi-layered and also lasts much longer without flattening out and feeling “fatigued”.